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Grenade, bomb blasts target court in N.Caucasus

Attackers fired at a court building in the Russian Caucasus with a grenade launcher and triggered an explosive device, causing considerable damage but no casualties, police said Saturday.

The attacks late Friday targeted a courtroom building in the town of Malgobek in the volatile Ingushetia region, the regional interior ministry said in a statement.

“At around 11:50 pm, unidentified attackers fired twice, apparently with a grenade launcher, at the city court building,” the ministry said.

“Opposite the building, at a distance of 16 metres (yards), they triggered a homemade explosive device equivalent to 10 kilograms of TNT.”

The attacks caused “no injuries or death”, the ministry said, but the building “suffered significant damage”.

Russia is fighting a simmering Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, where it fought two wars with Chechen separatists in the 1990s, and attacks targeting police and government officials are a near-daily occurrence.